Google Ads

This guide will tell you all you need to know about aligning your Google Ads campaigns to benefit from word-of-mouth using Herdify targeting.

The targets

The Herdify targets for Google Ads are provided in a CSV file which can be uploaded directly into Google Ads Editor.

Uploading the targets to Google

1. Open Google Ads Editor and select the account you want to add the locations to.
2. In the Manage panel on the left-hand side select Keywords & targeting and Locations.
3. Select Make multiple changes.
4. In the dialog box, set the destination campaigns in the left hand panel. First select Use selected destinations and then Add as campaign-level locations. In the box below, check the tick-boxes next to the campaigns you want to apply targeting to. Once you have selected the campaigns, input the targets by setting the first column header to ID and copy and pasting the IDs from the targets downloaded from the Herdify portal.
5. When everything is set up click Process to input the targets. On the next dialog box you will be shown any errors. Select Finish and review changes to upload the targets.
6. Finally, click Keep all to apply the changes.

Rollout and spend optimisation

Some users direct their entire budget towards word-of-mouth areas; however, many find they see better overall performance combining campaigns that capitalise on word-of-mouth activity with other BAU campaigns.

The optimal proportion of budget spent in word-of-mouth areas is individual for each brand, though typically it is in the range of 50–80%.

Testing

Many users want to set up a test to measure the benefit of targeting word-of-mouth. Doing so can help identify how this targeting can best work within your mix of campaigns and will help you report the value of Herdify now and in the future.

We recommend that testing follow some simple guidelines:

1. Select a small number of campaigns to test first, no more than 3. We recommend selecting your largest campaigns by budget and/or responses (sales, web visits, whichever outcome is your key focus). Focusing on these larger campaigns will enable you to get meaningful results more quickly.

2. For each campaign selected, set up 2 versions — one that targets the word-of-mouth targets and one that excludes these. This will allow you to see the difference in performance between ads shown in word-of-mouth areas against those that aren't.

3. Split the budget with 50% in each campaign.

   Warning

   If the audience for the word-of-mouth campaign is less than 10% of the size of the control campaign then you should split the budget unevenly, with 20% of spend in the word-of-mouth campaign.

4. Leave the test running for at least 1 month, or until you have observed about 300 of the target outcomes for each campaign. This will help generate significant results.

5. Do not rely solely on in-platform metrics for performance. This is necessary to measure the full impact of word-of-mouth on the campaign, as it includes people who were not targeted directly but who had the message passed to them by someone else. Performance is best measured using a third-party platform, such as Triple Whale. If this isn't available, reach out to your Customer Success Manager for support.

Rollout without testing

Some users don't want to exclude word-of-mouth areas from existing campaigns that perform well. The downside of not excluding is that it's difficult to quantify the benefits of targeting word-of-mouth for the brand. However, if a test is not possible, the best action is to take a staged rollout with the following steps:

1. Select a small number of campaigns to start with, no more than 3. We recommend selecting your largest campaigns by budget and/or responses (sales, web visits, whichever outcome you are targeting). Focusing on these larger campaigns will enable you to get meaningful results more quickly.

2. Determine if your campaign(s) can utilise bid adjustments.

   If a campaign is one of the following types — Search network, Display network, Shopping Campaign, Display video, YouTube or Hotel — and does not use a smart bidding strategy, you can use bid adjustments in the existing campaign to target more spend towards word-of-mouth clusters. Otherwise you will need to set up additional campaigns.

3. Apply the targeting:

   Bid adjustments not available Create a copy of each campaign selected, which targets the word-of-mouth clusters. Assign 15% of the budget to this new campaign.

   Bid adjustments available Apply an upweight of 50% to your bids for word-of-mouth clusters identified in the target locations.

4. Monitor performance for at least 2 weeks. Preferably this will be done using a third-party platform, such as Triple Whale. If this isn't available, talk to your Customer Success Manager about how Herdify can help.

   Bid adjustments not available Compare the performance of the two campaigns across all performance metrics.

   Bid adjustments available Compare the performance of the campaign with existing benchmarks.

   If there have been at least 300 of the target outcomes, you can move to the next steps. If there have not been this many outcomes, the results may not be statistically significant and only very large differences in performance (over 50%) should be considered. If you are unsure if results are significant, please ask your Customer Success Manager for assistance — Herdify can calculate the significance for you.

   Warning

   In this set up there's the potential for the two campaigns to compete against each other, resulting in high CPCs or one campaign delivering a very small volume. If this is observed, consider running a test that excludes word-of-mouth areas from the baseline campaign.

5. Scale targeting:

   Bid adjustments not available Increase the amount of budget targeting the word-of-mouth clusters if they are performing well. Increasing by 10% of the budget is the best next step for most brands. Run the campaigns with the new budgets for at least two weeks.

   Bid adjustments available Increase the bid adjustments to word-of-mouth clusters by 10%. Run the campaigns with these settings for at least two more weeks.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5, gradually increasing the targeting of word-of-mouth clusters.

7. Identify the optimal settings. As the spend increases in the word-of-mouth clusters, performance may start to decrease because of the larger budget being spent in a smaller audience. The optimum depends on your individual targets — it's a balance between efficiency and volume. If you need help identifying the optimal amount, please ask your Customer Success Manager for support.